Womyn-born womyn

Womyn-born womyn (WBW) is a term developed during second-wave feminism to designate spaces for, by, and about women who were identified as female at birth, were raised as girls, and identify as women (or womyn).

Events and organizations that have womyn-born-womyn-only policies bar access to anyone who was assigned male at birth, including trans women and the young children of attendees, a position which has raised a number of concerns from transgender groups.

Lisa Vogel, co-founder of Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, stated during a Bitch magazine roundup, that:

"What womyn-born womyn means to us is women who were born as women, who have lived their entire experience as women, and who identify as women."

The term gained usage and popularity during the second wave feminist movement. In 1978, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto adopted a womyn-born womyn-only policy in response to a request for admittance by a transgender woman who identified as lesbian. Womyn-born womyn policies focused on the unique nature of the feminine experience over the course of a lifetime, and that could only be experienced by someone who experienced life presenting as a woman. The intent was to create a space for only women, defined not by identity but experience, resulting in the exclusion of transgender women.

Second-wave feminism is a period in the feminist movement lasting from the 1960s until around the 1980s. Some feminists of the period such as Janice Raymond, Mary Daly, and Sheila Jeffreys, were proponents of womyn-born womyn policies. The policies created controversy and scholarly discussion, and there is opposition to them.

Raymond's The Transsexual Empire is often seen as the characterizing work of this movement. It is famous for its view of trans women as privileged men who didn't previously live in the oppression of the patriarchy, stating, "We know who we are. We know that we are women who are born with female chromosomes and anatomy, and that whether or not we were socialised to be so-called normal women, patriarchy has treated and will treat us like women. Transsexuals have not had this same history."

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